Japan memory: (7) The Japanese job hunting

Entering the 2nd year in my student life in Japan, the traditional Japanese style job hunting activities started and I began to think about my future as well.

The options are (1) work in Taiwan, (2) work in Japan or (3) further study in another country.

Further study in another country will bring heavy economic burden for me and I want to earn some working experience. So I chose to work.

Then with the thought of wanting to know more about Japan and do something more in Japan, I decided to stay and work in Japan.

I started my job hunting in Japan.

Completely out of my expectation, the job hunting activities in Japan is like an alien world for me.

In my expectation, job hunting is just finding a job. In Taiwan, people usually find a job through sending applications to companies on internet or receiving recommendation from professors in their universities. Then, a potential exam and an interview are everything required in the process.

スポンサーリンク

I went to a “company introduction seminar” with such a thought.

I heard that I can hand out “entry sheet” right after the seminar, so I spent 5 minutes to right it and handed it out.

At that time, I just think an “entry sheet” is nothing more than asking for a start of an application.

But it’s not just a start.

The job hunting activities in Japan is extremely unique.

I briefly listed up the following features as your reference.

Prefer new graduated students than experienced experts.
Start job hunting activities all together in the whole Japan.
The process is extremely complicated.

What a troublesome process!

In order to choose right people, the process developed to be huge and complicated.

A company owned 12,000 employees and raised 50% revenues from international markets where I was trying to get a position in 2008 had a process as following.

Company introduction seminar
Submission of entry sheet
Paper exams
First interview
Discussion with current employees
Second interview
Visit company facility (including essay writing)
Final interview

Yes, 8 steps!!

And it took 3 months in total!!